I'm twice the man I was yesterday." "I've brought some young ladies to call upon you," announced the Major.
"Will you see them ?" Joe flushed at first, remembering his plastered skull and maimed condition.

But he could not well refuse to receive his callers, whom he guessed to be the three girls Old Hucks had praised to him so highly.
"It will give me great pleasure, sir," he replied.
An invalid is usually of interest to women, so it is no wonder that the three young ladies were at once attracted by the bright-faced boy, who reclined upon his couch before the vine-covered windows.

They thought of Ethel, too, and did not marvel that the girl grieved over the loss of this friend of her childhood.
Joe had to recount the adventure with the automobile, which led to his injuries, and afterward give an account of his life at the hospital.
That led, naturally, to the timely assistance rendered him by the faithful Thomas, so that Louise was able to broach the subject nearest her heart.
"We have been greatly interested in your old servants--whom we acquired with the farm, it seems--and all of us admire their simplicity and sincerity," she began.
"Nora is a dear," added Beth.
"And Thomas is so cheerful that his smile is enough to vanquish any attack of the blues," said Patsy.
"The Hucks are the right sort, and no mistake," declared the Major, taking his cue from the others.
This praise evidently delighted the boy.

They could have found no more direct way to win his confidence.
"Nora was my mother's maid from the time she was a mere girl," said he; "and Thomas sailed with my father many years before I was born." They were a little surprised to hear him speak so frankly.

But Louise decided to take advantage of the opening afforded her.
"Nora has told us that some great trouble came to them years ago--a trouble that also affected your own parents.